Black Southenrner

672 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The evolution of chattel slavery in america

Black Southerners

Over the years most of us have read a great deal about the institution of slavery and it’s effects on this country and the African American race as a whole. The fact of the matter is most of us have only learned certain information about slavery. There are only certain facts and historical figures that we lean about. No to say that the information we get is wrong, but we were not taught the whole story. This could be due to the approach of different instructors or because school curriculums are supposed to focus on the interesting facts and stories about slavery. The fact of the matter is there are some areas that go untouched when learning about slavery in most schools. Reading the book Black Southerners was something different for me. It was like some one opened a door and when I entered in I found hidden facts and knowledge about an institution that has a tremendous effect on my country and this history of race.
John B. Boles is the author of Black Southerners, and before he even discusses slavery itself he acknowledges that most people have preconceived notions about not just about slavery but about history as a whole. Boles says:
Part of the mythology every schoolchild in the United States learns…is that the colony of Virginia achieved quick prosperity upon the basis of slaves and tobacco. Thus, “the South” is assumed to have existed as an initial settlement, with little change until the cataclysm of the Civil War in 1861.

Boles discusses the beginnings of slavery in the seventeenth century and he clearly states the common misconceptions of readers and students:
Some present-day readers believe slavery began in Jamestown in 1619…if such readers are aware of slavery’s existence in the ancient world, the assume it had become extinct until New World plantations arose with their greed for cheap labor.

Boles writes on how slavery was indeed something that started in the Ancient world, and also it was not something that was racial motivated instead “as in the ancient system, slaves were usually captives of war…with religion, not race, being the crucial factor.” He notions the fact that “not all blacks were slaves.”
An important element that should not go unnoticed is how Boles describes how the institution of slavery changed dramatically over time. In it’s early years it was an institution that was not based on race, but more on war, religion, and legal status.

Show More
Related

  • Mary Surratt: An American Secret

    1804 Words  | 4 Pages

    What The South Intends. THE CHRISTIAN RECORDERS August 12, 1865, Print. James, Edward, Janet James, and Paul Boyer.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Black Southerners By John B Boles

    973 Words  | 2 Pages

    I would also recommend this to any history book-worms who seem to be very passionate for the scoop on the real story of past history and feel like they do not know as much information about the subject as they feel they should. This book by Boles is the opposite of what you would expect when you saw that the subject would be about slavery. When you open a book about slavery you expect to hear how horrible times were, how the past was such an iconic time due to the treatment of African Americans. I feel it is important to spread the history of our generation as we sometimes try to ignore the past. What I do know is that this book does make me wonder, is this problem still amongst us today? And if so, is it still being handled with ignorance as it was at the time it begun? Understanding slavery and race in today’s generations in the United States is a sensitive and controversial

    Read More

  • The Central Theme of Southern History by Ulrich B. Phillips

    1616 Words  | 4 Pages

    Imagine a historian, author of an award-winning dissertation and several books. He is an experienced lecturer and respected scholar; he is at the forefront of his field. His research methodology sets the bar for other academicians. He is so highly esteemed, in fact, that an article he has prepared is to be presented to and discussed by the United States’ oldest and largest society of professional historians. These are precisely the circumstances in which Ulrich B. Phillips wrote his 1928 essay, “The Central Theme of Southern History.” In this treatise he set forth a thesis which on its face is not revolutionary: that the cause behind which the South stood unified was not slavery, as such, but white supremacy. Over the course of fourteen elegantly written pages, Phillips advances his thesis with evidence from a variety of primary sources gleaned from his years of research. All of his reasoning and experience add weight to his distillation of Southern history into this one fairly simple idea, an idea so deceptively simple that it invites further study.

    Read More

  • Slavery in America between 1800 and 1860

    724 Words  | 2 Pages

    Between 1800 and 1860 slavery in the American South had become a ‘peculiar institution’ during these times. Although it may have seemed that the worst was over when it came to slavery, it had just begun. The time gap within 1800 and 1860 had slavery at an all time high from what it looks like. As soon as the cotton production had become a long staple trade source it gave more reason for slavery to exist. Varieties of slavery were instituted as well, especially once international slave trading was banned in America after 1808, they had to think of a way to keep it going – which they did. Nonetheless, slavery in the American South had never declined; it may have just come to a halt for a long while, but during this time between 1800 and 1860, it shows it could have been at an all time high.

    Read More

  • Beowulf, Burton Raffel: Definition Of An Epic Hero

    808 Words  | 2 Pages

    Many individuals fail to correctly describe a hero. When young, they are taught that heroes have superpowers and are powerful. In the epic poem, Beowulf, Burton Raffel contradicts this belief. He translates the characteristics that make Beowulf an epic hero. Beowulf fits the definition of an epic hero because of his courageous deeds that reflect the values of his era, his character traits that reflect important ideals of his society, and his journey leaving his homeland to live with others.

    Read More

  • Analysis of White Over Black: American Attitudes Toward the Negro by Winthrop D. Jordan

    1182 Words  | 3 Pages

    Winthrop D. Jordan author of White Over Black: American Attitudes Toward the Negro 1550-1812, expresses two main arguments in explaining why Slavery became an institution. He also focuses attention on the initial discovery of Africans by English. How theories on why Africans had darker complexions and on the peculiarly savage behavior they exhibited. Through out the first two chapters Jordan supports his opinions, with both facts and assumptions. Jordan goes to great length in explaining how the English and early colonialist over centuries stripped the humanity from a people in order to enslave them and justify their actions in doing so. His focus is heavily on attitudes and how those positions worked to create the slave society established in this country.

    Read More

  • The Transformation of Slavery's Defense

    466 Words  | 1 Pages

    In the 1830’s the Southerners thought, or made themselves think, slavery was a necessary evil. They thought that the Negroes were as helpless as children, without foresight or faculties that would enable them to depended upon anybody else but the white race. Southerners saw themselves as the great people who helped accelerate the transition process of this inferior tribe; the process from barbarianism to civilization. They felt enslavement benefited slaves; heaven forbid slaves were free,...

    Read More

  • The Road to the American Civil War

    1339 Words  | 3 Pages

    The North and South were forming completely different economies, and therefore completely different geographies, from one another during the period of the Industrial Revolution and right before the Civil War. The North’s economy was based mainly upon industrialization from the formation of the American System, which was producing large quantities of goods in factories. The North was becoming much more urbanized due to factories being located in cities, near the major railroad systems for transportation of the goods, along with the movement of large groups of factory workers to the cities to be closer to their jobs. With the North’s increased rate of job opportunities, many different people of different ethnic groups and classes ended up working together. This ignited the demise of the North’s social order. The South was not as rapidly urbanizing as the North, and therefore social order was still in existence; the South’s economy was based upon the production of cotton after Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin. Large cotton plantations’ production made up the bulk of America’s...

    Read More

  • Slavery as the Cause of the American Civil War

    1746 Words  | 4 Pages

    Slavery was the core of the North and South’s conflict. Slavery has existed in the New World since the seventeenth century prior to it being exclusive to race. During those times there were few social and political concerns about slavery. Initially, slaves were considered indentured servants who will eventually be set free after paying their debt(s) to the owner. In some cases, the owners were African with white servants. However, over time the slavery became exclusive to Africans and was no limited to a specific timeframe, but life. In addition, the treatment of slaves worsens from the Atlantic Slave trade to th...

    Read More

  • Why is Beowulf considered a hero?

    623 Words  | 2 Pages

    Many epics have been written and forgotten. Yet, the epic of Beowulf has stayed as one of the premiere examples of a heroic epic. This brings an inevitable question to mind. Why is Beowulf considered a hero?

    Read More

  • Slavery During the 1800s

    481 Words  | 1 Pages

    Slavery in the eighteenth century was worst for African Americans. Observers of slaves suggested that slave characteristics like: clumsiness, untidiness, littleness, destructiveness, and inability to learn the white people were “better.” Despite white society's belief that slaves were nothing more than laborers when in fact they were a part of an elaborate and well defined social structure that gave them identity and sustained them in their silent protest.

    Read More

  • Slavery In Illinois

    1565 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Civil War Period has always been the primary hub of teaching in any American History classes. The era between the American Revolution and the Civil War was of a great importance since it has been the best and worst part of the western civilization during those times. The limelight was theirs when we turn back the pages of history. Consequently, slavery as an economic system and as a moral disgrace is one of the very most scandalous trend after the coming of the war. Prominent people had actual arguments about whether they are either pro-slavery or abolitionist, thus making the system even worse. Colonization to constraint of slavery on its natural eventual downfall is not merely the case now. Today, normal people have the same opinion about the moral repugnancy of slavery, and are left with a more complex idea about why many people supported the institution of slavery and why it was so difficult to eliminate that "peculiar institution."

    Read More

  • Beowulf Is An Epic Hero Essay

    583 Words  | 2 Pages

                Beowulf is everything an epic hero should be, he is brave and noble and admired for his great achievements in battle. His strength and his ability to hold his breath under water for an extensive amount time are abnormal.“My hands/Alone shall fight for me, struggle for life/Against the monster”(page 45 line 267-268). At this point he is saying that he will go fight Grendel with his own hands. This is a great example of how he knows that he has inhuman strength. Death seems to not frighten Beowulf at all because he believes that it is just fate. He talks about how it is his destiny to meet these monsters and battle with them even if it kills him.

    Read More

  • Modern Day Slavery Essay

    1371 Words  | 3 Pages

    Slavery has been a part of human practices for centuries and dates back to the world’s ancient civilizations. In order for us to recognize modern day slavery we must take a look and understand slavery in the American south before the 1860’s, also known as antebellum slavery. Bouvier’s Law Dictionary defines a slave as, “a man who is by law deprived of his liberty for life, and becomes the property of another” (B.J.R, pg. 479). In the period of antebellum slavery, African Americans were enslaved on small farms, large plantations, in cities and towns, homes, out on fields, industries and transportation. By law, slaves were the perso...

    Read More

  • History Textbooks Do Not Tell the Truth About Slavery

    2887 Words  | 6 Pages

    [2] When scholars and historians write history books, they are usually limited by their sense of nationalism or patriotism. They hesitate (or avoid altogether) to write about events or institutions that make the United States look bad. As James Loewen points out, history textbooks "...leave out anything that might reflect badly [on] our national character" (2). Most citizens of the United States are proud of the United States, its history, and its present role in the world’s affairs. They do not want to write or read about wrongs and injustices that the United States government or state governments have allowed or even encouraged. Eric Foner, professor of history at Columbia University, mentioned in a show called "Who Owns History", that the founding fathers considered slavery when writing the constitution and that the constitution strengthened the institution of slavery, by giving slaveholders more power. Most people have never heard of this because the constitution was always heralded as an incredible piece of writing that created a fair and balanced government. Historians avoided mentioning that the constitution strengthened slavery because that would taint the legacy of the constitution and the United States as a whole. History that we learn in school is not an unbiased narration of facts; it is molded and interpreted by the historians who write about it. Historians are constantly influenced by national pride and the desire to make our nation look good.

    Read More

More about Black Southenrner

Open Document